Simon Papendick starts Anderson, Rigden and Perkins register

Gadfly II on the water pic 2

Professional Essex boat builder, restorer, travelling boat maintenance man and enthusiastic weblogger Simon Papendick (read his stuff here) is setting up a register of vessels built by the Whitstable firm of Anderson, Rigden and Perkins, and is calling for owners to get in touch.

Contact Simon at jstarboatservices1@gmail.com .

The boat photographed above is Simon’s Anderson, Rigden and Perkins-built Gadfly II before its current refit.

Part of the the aim is to demonstrate the range of yachts that Anderson, Rigden and Perkins built, and to provide a forum for yacht owners to get in touch with each other, piece together bits of history, help each other with technical issues and so on.

The company is the subject of a book by Faversham boat builder Alan Staley, but I gather there are gaps in the history because many of the records were burnt in a fire at the boatyard, while other material was destroyed after a local library was unable to provide a home for them.

Looking around the World Wide Web, I notice that there’s this article from The Whitstable Times that neatly summarises the Anderson, Rigden and Perkins’ history – which includes motor boats, vessels for the Admiralty and a lot of repair work during World War II. However, it likely dates from before the period of its success with the well known fibreglass Anderson 22 lifting keel sailing cruiser and racer.

Simon Papendick’s latest personal project – a Kenneth Gibbs 14ft Halcyon dinghy

Simon Papendick Halcyon Class Dinghy restoration

Simon Papendick of J-Star Boats is currently restoring a 14ft Kenneth Gibbs-designed Halcyon class Dinghy.

Readers may remember an earlier series of posts from Simon recording his restoration of a small gaff cutter, Gadfly II, that was built by well known Whitstable boatbuilders Anderson, Rigden & Perkins. The posts record his work in restoring the boat and preparing her to sail again, but also his success in researching the boat’s history. To find that series of posts, click here and follow the older posts links.

The latest posts on Simon’s weblog show stages in the job of replacing cracked planks, and putting in new green oak ribs.

There’s some information and photos of a Halcyon dinghy sold by the auctioneers Bonhams here and a restoration project of a similar boat here (you have to scroll down quite a way to find it).